Process of distilling hydrocarbons



W. C. AVERILL, ]R. PROCESS 0F DISTILLING HYDOCAR'BONS.

APPLicATloN man JULY 12. |919.

Y Patented Apr.19,1921. L I-l .am

Y Q1 w1 mi fh A Il H r NQ"`LEE I s lq j g IM' f) N .lj/fsxican @rude Maf@ v//m y To all/whom z' may concern:

UNITED STATES.

PATENT oFFlcE.

'WILLARD C. AVRILL, JR., 0F HOUSTON, TEXAS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 19, 1921.

Application `iled July 12, 1919. Serial No. 310,334.

Be it known that I, WILLARD C. AVERILL, J r., residing in Houston, in the county of Harris and State of Texas, a citizen of the United States, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvementsl in Processes of Distilling Hydrocarbons, of

which the, following is a full, clear, and collpflete disclosure. 4

y' invention relates to the art of distillation and hasas one' of its objects the provision of a method and apparatus by the use of which larger yields of high grade products may be obtained than has heretofore been customary from the same grades of crude oil and also to provide a method and apparatus by means of which the fuel used in distilling a given quantity of crude liquid may be reduced to a minimum. With these objects in view my invention, briefly stated, consists in passing flue gases through the heated body of oil or the like in the still and then separating the flue gases from the entrained vapors, and the apparatus whereby these steps may be carried out.

The novel features of my invention are pointed out in the appended claim. The invention itself, however, together with further objects and advantages, will best be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which the ligure is a sectional elevation, diagrammatic 1n character, of the preferred form of myimproved apparatus for carrying out my process.

In said figure, 1 is a furnace preferably varranged to burn fueloil, the products of combustion from the furnace 1 pass-ing out the stack 2. 3 is a still of a well-known form placed over said furnace and connected to a water cooled condenser coil 4 by a pipe 5, the liquids from the coil 4 being carried oi' by the pipe 6.

7 is an exhauster, the intake side of which is connected to the pipe 6 near the outlet of the condenser by a pipeS; The `funnel 9 is disposed in the "stack 2 and is mounted on the end of a pipe 10 leading into the still 3, the lower end of pipe 10 running close to the bottom of the still andbeing perforated as shown at 11. The portion of pipe 10 between the cooler 12, the purpose of which will presently appear. rl`he still 3 1s preferably equipped with a thermometer 13. When the cone 9 and still carries a oil in the still has been raised to the desired temperature, the exhauster 7 is setin operatlon and flue gases from the stack 2 are drawn through the oil in the still and through the condenser by the partial vacuum ycreated by the vacuum pump or eX- hauster. As the heated gases bubble up through the oil in the still, they give up a part of their heat thus raising the temperature of the oil and reducing the amount of heat to be supplied from the furnace in the usual way.` This Asaving I have found by actual'use to be substantial, but the great advantage ofl passing the furnace gases through the body of -oil arises out of the fact '.that as the heated gases bubble up through the oil they entrain and carry along with them all of the light hydrocarbons and give larger yieldsof gasolene, kerosene and distillates than can be obtained-by any other process known to me. The vapors carried out of the still pass with the furnace gases into the condenser coil 4, where the hydrocarbons are condensed. rlhe ases are drawn ofi' through exhauster 7 W ile the liquid hydrocarbons flow away through pipe 6. In case the temperature of the flue gases is undesirably high, they may be cooled as much as required by operating the cooler 12.

I am aware that it is customary in distilling crude petroleum, when cracking is not desired, to pass steam into the still through .a perforated pipe and allow it to bubble through the oil. The steam agitates the oil mechanically and so assists in preventing cracking by maintaining a uniform temperature and it also serves to carry oil methods of distillation.

While I have developedmy process pri-v marily for distillation of crude petroleum, it may be applied to the distillation of other hydrocarbons. v

This I believe impossible wheny using steam according to the ordinaryv ioo ilo

@ f l y' 1,375,245

Having thus described my invention, I still containing said crudeoil directly by 1 claim: y Y products of combustion, cooling a portion The method of simultaneously producing of said products after having used the same pale lubricating oil and distillates includunder the still, passing said cooled portion 5'1ng gasolene from crude petroleum oil conthrough the oil in said still, While heated taining asphalt forming material in material as aforesaid,` and subsequently condensing 15 quantities and having hi hv 'sulfur content 'out the hydrocarbon vapors from said poras exemplified by Gulf i oast crude petrotion. leum, comprising heating the bottom of a WILLARD C. AVERILL,.JR. 

